Musa Kart Sentenced To Jail For Aiding Terrorist Organizations In Distress Turkish Court OutomeI'm sort of choked with contempt that the routinely brave cartoonist Musa Kart and many of his journalistic peers were sentenced to jail for aiding terrorist organizations through their coverage. Kart got just over three years. Many of the accused including Kart were held for a lengthy time before being released ahead of their trials.

This isn't Turkish leadership suppressing criticism through the use of the courts, it's basically an act of political revenge where the victorious side of an attempted coup has decided to push for greater control over opposition press by defining the terms of what was at stake during the conflict to which the paper bore witness. It should send a shudder up anyone's spine that values the role that journalistic coverage plays in helping sort out extremely difficult issues during times of turmoil. No judicial body should be interpreting work along these lines. Freedom to comment and direct coverage of controversial political activity needs the greatest possible distance from official censure.

The life of this blog has seen multiple instances where the dimmest of powerful fucknuts have secured more power against the basics of not just a free press but basically any press by weaponizing political opinion. This is as dismaying an outcome as one can imagine, at least until it starts happening here.